Articles
Keeping Records
In most marriages either the husband or the wife is the designated bookkeeper. At our house that is my job, and I keep fairly detailed records. It helps us stay on budget, “live within our means,” and keeps things running smoothly. Having just completed last year’s taxes brings this subject to mind.
The Bible has some things to say about keeping records.
Records of Wrongs
Some people keep detailed records of others’ wrongs. The Bible condemns that. Love “does not take into account a wrong suffered” (1 Corinthians 13:5); “it keeps no record of wrongs” (NIV). Some translations say love is “not resentful”; that is the outcome of keeping records of wrongs.
Jesus cautioned that we must learn to be forgiving; otherwise, God will not forgive us (Matthew 6:15). In the same sermon He also warned against the fault-finding spirit, the one that so readily sees others’ wrongs while blind to our own (7:1-5).
Records of Rights
The Lord also addressed another problematic kind of recordkeeping: too much attention to our own good deeds. Not only must we refrain from broadcasting such acts to others (Matthew 6:1-2), Jesus added, “But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you” (vv. 3-4). In other words, do not even announce it to yourself. The danger is pride and self-righteousness.
Another problem with too much focus on the good we have done is complacency about current and future opportunities. Commenting about his service to Christ, Paul wrote, “Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14). If Paul needed to keep on working despite what he had already done, so do we!
Records of Everything
The Bible sometimes depicts God as a bookkeeper. His records are all-inclusive (Ecclesiastes 12:14)! Fortunately, He has a big eraser. Jesus died for our sins. When we put our faith in Him it is “credited” unto righteousness (Romans 4:1-8); that is, faith is the condition upon which God will forgive or erase the sin. “Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away . . .” (Acts 3:19). Is your name written in the Lamb’s book of life?
